Today In History...

   In 1775 Paul Revere begins his famous ride from Charleston to Lexington, MA,

           warning American colonists that the British were coming.

   In 1902 Denmark is the first country to adopt fingerprinting as a way to

           identify criminals.

   In 1906 A devastating earthquake strikes San Francsico, followed by raging

           fires. About 700 people are killed.

   In 1921 Junior Achievement, created to encourage business skills in young

           people, is incorporated.

   In 1923 The first game in Yankee Stadium is played. The Yankees defeated

           the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.

   In 1924 The first crossword puzzle book is published by Simon & Schuster.

   In 1934 The first coin-operated laundry, called a "washateria," opens in

           Fort Worth, Texas.

   In 1942 Sixteen American B-25s from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Colonel James

           H. Doolittle bomb Tokyo and other Japanese cities, four months after

           the attack on Pearl Harbor.

   In 1942 The first World War II edition of "The Stars And Stripes" is

           published as a weekly newspaper for U.S. troops in Northern Ireland.

   In 1945 War correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese gunfire on the

           Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa.

   In 1946 The League of Nations is dissolved.

   In 1949 The Irish republic is proclaimed.

   In 1950 Lenny Bruce makes his debut on Arthur Godfrey's "Talent Scouts."

   In 1955 Physicist Albert Einstein dies in Pinceton, New Jersey.

   In 1955 The phrase "Third World" is first used by Indonesia's President

           Sukarno in a speech about non-white and underdeveloped areas.

   In 1956 Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monoco in a civil

           ceremony. (A church wedding took place the following day.)

   In 1977 Alex Haley, author of "Roots," is awarded a Pultizer Prize.

   In 1978 The U.S. Senate votes, 68-32, to turn the Panama Canal over to

           Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.

   In 1979 The TV magazine "Real People" debuts on NBC-TV.

   In 1980 Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe as the British

           flag was lowered at a ceremony in Salisbury.

   In 1983 62 people, including 17 Americans, are killed at the U.S. Embassy

           in west Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.

   In 1983 Author Alice Walker wins the Pulitzer Prize for "The Color Purple."

   In 1984 Two daredevils parachute off the Eiffel Tower.

   In 1984 Two unarmed U.S. Army helicopters, one of them carrying two American

           senators, make forced landings after coming under fire on a flight

           over Honduras near the border with El Salvador.

   In 1986 Ted Turner announces plans to takeover CBS, but can't pull it off.

   In 1986 A Titan rocket carrying a secret military payload explodes seconds

           after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

   In 1988 An Israeli court convicts John Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker from

           Cleveland, of committing war crimes at the Treblinka death camp.

   In 1989 Closing arguments begin in Oliver North's trial.

   In 1989 Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy try to storm

           Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

   In 1990 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may make it a crime to

           possess or look at child pornography, even in one's home.

   In 1991 The Census Bureau estimates its 1990 census had failed to count up

           to 6.3 million people.

   In 1991 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev ends his summit in Japan

           without winning the major aid package he'd been hoping for.

   In 1992 Serbia issues a protest to the U.S., accusing Washington of siding

           with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia in the Yogoslav crisis.

   In 1994 Former President Nixon suffers a stroke at his home in Park Ridge,

           NJ, and was taken to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He

           died four days later.

   In 1995 Former San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana retires from

           professional football.

   In 1995 The Houston Post closes its doors after more than a century.

   In 1996 President Clinton addresses the Japanese Parliament.

   In 1996 Israeli shells kill 91 Lebanese refugees in a UN camp. Israel called

           the attack an "unfortunate mistake."

   In 1996 Gunmen open fire at a hotel in Egypt, killing 18 Greek tourists.

   In 1998 Northern Ireland's main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists,

           approves a peace agreement.

   In 1998 Former North Carolina governor and U.S. Senator Terry Sanford dies

           in Durham at age 80.

   In 1999 Wayne Gretzky plays his last National Hockey League game as his New

           York Rangers lost to Pittsburgh, 2-1, in overtime.

   In 2000 The worst air crash in Philippine history kills 131 aboard a

           Philippine Air plane.

   In 2000 Robert L. Yates Jr. is arrested in Spokane, WA, in connection with

           the murder of a teen-age prostitute. (Yates later confessed to

           killing 13 people, and was sentenced to 408 years in prison.)